Operation P R O M
by UglyTurnip
Summary: Natsuki is left heartbroken after discovering that MC asked Yuri to senior prom. However, with the help of Monika's clever thinking and Sayori's moral support, there may still be a chance for the two of them to get together after all. Commence Operation: P. R. O. M.
1. Heartbreak

"Hey!" Natsuki greeted with an excitable smile as she skipped towards the booth. It wasn't often that she found herself with such boundless energy, but today was a special day, and so she did. "Two tickets to the spring prom, please."

The student, a freshman, by the look of her, nodded. Reaching into the drawer, she quickly pulled out two slips of paper and slid them toward Natsuki. "That will be $50, please."

Natsuki slipped off her backpack, reached into the frontmost compartment, and pulled out a few bills. Counting them carefully, she confirmed that she had just enough to afford them. "Here you go!"

The freshman took the money, and Natsuki quickly did the same with her tickets. Excitedly, she read them aloud:

"Admit one for the Doki High School Senior Prom!" she practically squealed. "Oh, thank you so much!" Natsuki spoke with genuine gratitude.

"You're welcome," the freshman replied with a proud smile. "So, I take it that you said yes?"

Natsuki blinked. "What?"

"You said yes," the freshman repeated. "To the guy that asked you out, I mean."

"Nope," Natsuki replied, but she still grinned from ear to ear. "He's kinda a dummy. I've been dropping hints for months now, but I don't think he's ever noticed how I feel about him."

The freshman nodded.

"But I'm gonna ask him right now!" Natsuki clarified. "I'm gonna ask him to be my first boyfriend, my first date, my first _kiss_," Natsuki remarked whimsically. "I never knew what love felt like until I met him, but now I can't stop celebrating!"

The freshman smiled. "Well, I'm happy for you. Good luck with your prom!"

"Thank you!" Natsuki called out as she began to walk away. "It's gonna be wonderful!"

Now that she had what she had come for, Natsuki practically ran down the hall, up the stairs, and into the hall where MC's locker resided. She knew he'd be there; he always dropped all his books off once classes ended. Sure enough, he was, smiling to himself as he did so. He practically radiated that same positive energy that Natsuki felt, and that only bolstered her confidence further.

"MC!" she called out, dashing straight for him. "MC!"

MC turned to her, flashing her a smile that made her feel so adored. He may have been a dummy, but darn it, he was special to her. She hoped, no, she _believed_ with all of her will that he thought the same of her.

"Hey, Natsuki," he greeted once she caught up to him. "What's up?"

Natsuki felt the slips of paper brush up against her closed palm. Those two tickets were the key to an entire future. She just knew it.

* * *

_Holding each other close, Natsuki and MC danced right in the middle of the throng. A spotlight shone down on the pair of them, bathing MC's beautiful face in an angelic glow. Natsuki smiled up at him, her eyes half-lidded, her hands gripping his. He returned her happy expression with his own loving grin._

_"Oh, Natsuki," MC spoke. The tone of his voice was like warm milk to her ears. "I'm so glad you asked me to the dance."_

_"You're welcome," Natsuki cooed back, her lips closing in on his. "It's a thank you, you know? For making me feel so special."_

_MC's face was overcome by a bright red blush, almost as if slightly taken aback. However, his smile, by some small miracle, did not fade away._

_"Natsuki," he began._

_"Yes?"_

_"Will you. . . Will you go out with me-"_

_Her lips met his, and they sunk into a deep kiss. All around them, the crowd gasped, then erupted into applause._

_"Yes," Natsuki giggled once they had broken off. "I've been waiting to hear that, you big dummy, but yes."_

_And then, she leaned in for another kiss, ready to formalize her new relationship with the boy that understood her more than any other, when-_

* * *

"Natsuki," MC questioned. "Are you alright?"

Natsuki jumped and opened up her eyes, suddenly becoming aware that she had gotten far too carried away in a fantasy that she desperately wished was true. Her face went red, and her expression rapidly morphed into an annoyed scowl. "W-what? Y-yeah, dummy, why wouldn't I be?"

MC shrugged. "I dunno, you were looking around and not really paying attention. Is something on your mind?"

Natsuki remembered the tickets she was holding, what they were for, and why she was even talking to MC right now in the first places. "Oh, yeah. I have some great news to tell you, MC!"

MC's eyes lit up in realization. "You too!? I bet my news is greater!"

"Nuh-uh!" Natsuki playfully argued, secretly scrambling for some sort of idea as to what MC could be talking about. Her mind, unfortunately, came up empty. "I bet my news will rock your socks off."

MC raised an eyebrow. "You're on. Five bucks?"

Natsuki's smile became a mischievous smirk. "Five bucks," she agreed. "You go first."

MC inhaled deeply through his nostrils, barely able to keep himself together from the excitement. "OK, can you believe this? I asked Yuri to prom, and she said yes!"

Natsuki froze. The sudden stabbing pain in her heart nearly caused her to flinch and drop the tickets. Her smile dropped. Her eyes no longer glimmered with even the tiniest sparkle of joy. She was certain that the words she just heard were the real deal, yet part of her, some very persistent part of her, clung on to the idea that she was wrong.

"C-come again?"

If MC saw the change in her mood, he didn't show any indication of it. More likely, however, he didn't. It was true that she had been trying to get his attention for months, but he never seemed to understand that those playful jokes, those goofy smiles, and those intimate after-school manga readings were all more than just merely a close friendship. There was never a boy that made Natsuki feel the way he did. He didn't judge her for her strange interests, nor did mock her for her less than stellar home life. She felt like he cared for her truly and purely, and it unearthed feelings that she couldn't tell if he reciprocated.

She guessed this was the answer: a big **NO**. It hurt more than never experiencing a crush at all, but by some miracle, she kept herself composed.

"So. . . You're going with Yuri?" Natsuki asked, forcing a smile onto her otherwise downtrodden face. "That's. . . That's fantastic!"

MC grinned from ear to ear, both knowingly relishing in his accomplishment and unknowingly relishing in Natsuki's newfound sorrow. "Yep! I've been working up the nerve to ask her for a month. Can you believe she didn't already have a date in the first place? It's like she was waiting for me to ask her. I don't know what's come over me, but it's not anything I don't like. Every time I see her lately. . . I don't know how to describe it! It's like I get all gooey inside!"

Natsuki's face involuntarily twitched. That was exactly how she felt every time she was around him. Of course, nobody asked Yuri because Yuri was known to be a little weird, but MC didn't seem to care what others thought about his friends. "Yeah, that sounds like destiny, alright."

She clenched the tickets tightly in her fist. Her composure hung by a thread. She fought tooth and nail to keep it from snapping, but it still felt like a losing battle.

"So, what's your good news? I bet it can't top that!"

Natsuki glanced down at the wrinkled tickets in her hand, then back at MC. She frowned, but managed to make it only seem like minor disappointment. "I was just gonna say that I. . . I got an A on that super hard calculus test."

It was true enough.

MC beamed. "You did?" he questioned rhetorically. Before Natsuki even had a chance to answer, he pulled her into an embrace. "Oh, Natsuki, I'm so proud of you."

For a moment, just a brief, fleeting moment, Natsuki could forget about the crushing disappointment, the feelings of worthlessness, and the despair of rejection creeping up inside of her. For a moment, he was holding her in his arms like she longed for every time she saw him. For a moment, he was hers.

And then it ended. Natsuki made no effort to smile. Instead, she sighed. "Well, I guess. . . I guess I owe you that five dollars, don't I?"

MC shrugged. "I mean, we did kind of bet on it."

That was true. They were always making these sorts of friendly bets with one another once Natsuki had become more comfortable around him. Most of the time, she won, and she was happy about it. It meant she had emergency lunch money if Papa ever forget. Now, as she dug into her bag frantically, she found nothing. All of her money had went into those tickets, and she was none the better for it.

"Uh, I guess I'll have to pay you back later," Natsuki chuckled nervously. "S-sorry, I thought I had more money on me than I did."

MC shrugged, flashing her an understanding smile. "That's OK, Natsuki; you always pay me back. I'm so lucky to have you as a friend, you know?"

_Why can't I be more than a friend? Why did you have to ask her_ _to prom instead of me!?_

Natsuki nodded. "T-thanks."

"Well," MC began. "Are you ready for another literature club meeting?"

"I-in a little bit," Natsuki confirmed with a nod, no longer capable of looking him in the eyes. "I have to go to the bathroom."

On a dime, she turned and ran away as fast as her legs could carry her. For a moment, MC stared at her with a raised eyebrow as she sprinted down the hall and barged into the girls' bathroom. He wondered if there was anything wrong. Come to think of it. . . Why was her smile so strange? Where had her snarky, playful jabs at him gone? Was there something he needed to know?

At last, he shrugged, then turned away. She probably just had to pee pretty badly.

The door to the hall had just barely shut when Natsuki began to sob uncontrollably. As the first tears fell, her cries echoed throughout the small bathroom. Glancing about with blurry vision, she made her way to the farthest stall from the door, closed it behind her, locked it, and cried some more.

He didn't love her. She was only a friend in his eyes, and she had always been that way. Why? She never felt this close to another classmate before, male or female. He didn't think she was childish. He shared her hobbies. He gave her every indication that he enjoyed her for whom she was, and she was more than grateful for that. Even now, finding herself in the position she was, she still loved him with all of her heart.

But he did not.

Her hands were still clutching the tickets. Through the tears, she remembered the toilet sitting next to her. She knew what she wanted to do.

With a heavy heart, she tore up the little slips of paper, threw them down into the toilet, and watched as they, and the future they held, were sucked out of sight forever.

She sat on the toilet, cradled her knees against her chest, and allowed her sobs to echo. She didn't feel like coming to the club today. Truth be told, she didn't feel like doing anything except crying anymore.


	2. Going Home Early

"What's taking Natsuki so long," Monika sighed, breaking the silence in the otherwise quiet literature club room. The four present club members had all exchanged their daily poems with one another, and they had ended up splitting into pairs afterward. Sayori and Monika sat together on one side of the room, their desks arranged so that they were facing one another, while MC and Yuri sat on the floor, sharing a book and whispering to one another. Neither Monika nor Sayori could quite make out what they were saying, but they both noticed that Yuri was speaking much more than usual today.

"I dunno," Sayori shrugged. "She said she had to go pee. Maybe she was holding it in for a long time?"

Monika shook her head, unimpressed by the answer. "People don't pee for thirty-two minutes, Sayori," she reminded. Then, she frowned. "I'm worried about her; she never misses club meetings."

"I'll go check on her!" Sayori declared as she sprang up from her seat. "I kinda have to go pee, anyway. Too much apple juice," Sayori giggled nervously.

Monika nodded. "That might be for the best."

Sayori jogged out of the room and down the hall, but she slowed her pace to a creep once she approached the bathroom door. She heard. . . Something on the other side, so that was a good sign. Then, she pushed open the door.

That sound was sobbing. Sayori recognized who exactly was doing the wailing. Her heart sank almost instantly.

"N-Natsuki? Are you OK?"

The sobbing stopped. Sayori heard a sniffle. "S-S-Sayori?"

"Yeah," Sayori replied, coming closer to the stall. "What's the matter, Natsuki? We're all waiting for you in the club."

There was an awkward pause. "G-Go away!" Natsuki lashed out bitterly. "Leave me alone!"

"Natsuki," Sayori moaned sadly. "You're crying. I can't leave you alone now; it would break the Sayori code of honor."

Natsuki sniffled again. "I-I just need some time alone, Sayori. P-please, g-give me a few more minutes."

"You need a friend," Sayori accused in a caring tone. "I need to use the bathroom. I'm not going anywhere."

The attempt at playful humor got a chuckle out of Natsuki, but little else. "Y-you're right," she relented, unlocking the stall door with a _click_. "Come in."

Sayori frowned and raised an eyebrow. "Natsuki, I'm not gonna pee in the same stall as you."

"That's not what I-. . . Just get in here, please!"

Sayori obliged reluctantly, coming in to find Natsuki staring at her. Her eyes were bloodshot from all the crying she had done, and her cheeks burned with an emotion that Sayori could not decipher- anger, passion, embarrassment? Perhaps all three.

Regardless, Sayori knew what to do. Throwing her arms around Natsuki, she allowed the girl to cry on her shoulder. Natsuki obliged, melting into her friend's grip as she let everything out. For a while, neither said anything, the only sound emanating throughout the small restroom being Natsuki's choking sobs. It tore at Sayori's heart to see her friend like this. She would find the person who did this to her, and then. . . She would give them a stern talking-to!

At last, Natsuki calmed down enough to let go of Sayori. However, she still continued to cry silently, gazing at the floor with a downtrodden expression.

"T-thank you," Natsuki murmured weakly. "S-sorry you had to s-see me like that."

"It's no trouble at all," Sayori replied, flashing a sad smile. "Do you wanna tell me what the problem is?"

Natsuki nodded. She sighed sadly, inhaled deeply, and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"I. . . I bought a pair of tickets for prom," she explained.

Sayori's eyes lit up with joy. "Oh, Natsuki, that's wonderfu-"

Natsuki put a hand over Sayori's mouth. "He's already going with someone else."

Sayori stopped in her tracks. Instantly, her happy smiled melted into a disappointed frown. Seeing such happy girl become so sad-looking only made Natsuki feel worse, but she tried her best to brush her feelings aside, for now. It was somewhat easier than expected, given how she had let them all out before.

"Oh, Natsuki. I'm so, so sorry! That's terrible! Who did you ask out?"

Natsuki glanced at the toilet. She thought about the tickets she had flushed away not ten minutes after buying them. What a waste of $50. "P-promise not to tell?"

"Cross my heart and hope to die!" Sayori vowed as she made a crossing motion around her heart.

Natsuki could accept that. Sayori may not have been the brightest bulb in the drawer, but she was nothing if not trustworthy.

"It was MC."

Sayori nearly doubled over from the shock. "What!? B-but you two always hang out together! How could he do this to you!?"

Natsuki exhaled. "It's my fault, really. I should have been honest with my feelings. Now," Natsuki sighed, hugging her knees to her chest once more. "Now, he's found someone else. Sayori, why was I such an idiot?"

Sayori playfully bonked her sad friend on the head. Maybe that would knock some sense into her. "Hey, don't talk about yourself like that! You made a mistake; nothing more."

Natsuki didn't respond for quite a while, in spite of Sayori's silliness. "I love him, Sayori, I really do. He makes me feel special, makes me feel wanted. I just. . ."

She started crying again, and she instinctively fell onto her friend for support. Sayori patted her on the back, but in her head, gears were turning. She wasn't the brightest bulb in the shed, she knew that and had no trouble admitting it, but that didn't render her incapable of forming a legitimately good plan.

"Well, why don't you just go to prom, anyway?" Sayori asked. "Just because you're single doesn't mean that you can't have a good time, right?"

Natsuki, still blubbering and incoherent, merely pointing toward the toilet. Sayori had to take a moment to put two and two together.

"Oh, Natsuki, why?" she murmered. "You poor thing. How could he choose. . . Who did he choose, again?"

"Y-y-y-yuri!" Natsuki wailed. "H-h-h-he l-l-likes Y-y-yuri!"

Yuri? That explained why she was sitting rather close to MC, today. Had Yuri ever confided in Sayori about potential feelings, however? She searched every memory that she had on file, yet it all came up blank.

"Yuri? Really? How could he choose Yuri over someone like you!? Not that Yuri is bad, or anything, but-"

Natsuki gestured to her own bosom, or lack thereof, and a new wave of sobs overcame her. "I'm so ugly! I'm just a w-w-waste!"

Sayori scowled, not at Natsuki, but at the wall behind her. That did it! Nobody was going to say such things and get away with it.

"Natsuki?"

Natsuki glanced up, still crying. "W-w-wha-"

"Don't you ever, _ever_, _**ever**_, call yourself useless again," Sayori uttered in a dark, threatening tone.

The oddity of seeing sweet literal Sayori turn so sinister on a dime was enough to surprise Natsuki out of crying altogether. If anything, now she was quivering a bit. "O-OK, sorry."

Sayori's chipper smile returned immediately. "Good! Because you're not useless, OK? He doesn't know what he's missing out on! Besides, I'm always here for you, I promise!"

For the first time since she received the awful news, Natsuki allowed herself a genuine smile. "Thank you, Sayori," she spoke, genuine gratitude in her tone. She pulled her friend into a hug. "You're the best friend I could ever ask for."

"All in a day's work, mon capitan!" Sayori saluted once they broke away. "Now, could you maybe get out for a minute or two?"

Natsuki tilted her head. "Huh? Why?"

"Cuz I gotta PEE!" Sayori shrieked.

"O-oh!" Natsuki jumped. "Yes! Yes, just give me a sec!"

And with that, she dashed out of the stall and out of the bathroom. Sayori popped out a few minutes later, looking much more relieved.

"That's better," she mumbled to herself before turning her attention back to Natsuki. "Ready for another day at the literature club?"

Natsuki gazed at the ground, absentmindedly kicked somebody's lost mechanical pencil, and shook her head. "Not really, no. I just wanna go home."

Sayori frowned sympathetically. "Are you sure? I promise we can still have a good time."

Natsuki sighed. "I don't want to see that tramp's hands and tits all over him. I just wanna go home," she repeated. "I want to forget today ever happened. Just tell them I was sick or something, alright?"

Sayori watched as Natsuki turned away and began walking down the hall, passing by the literature club door without so much as a glance. She hesitated, not knowing if she had any right to follow her or just break the news to the others.

But what kind of friend would she be to just let Natsuki walk off alone when she was in this kind of mood? A lousy one, that's the kind.

"Natsuki, wait!"

Natsuki turned back to see a huffing and puffing Sayori sprinting down the hall after her, waving frantically as she did so. "Waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait!"

"What is it now?" Natsuki groaned. "Can't I just go home?"

"Well, if you're leaving, then I'm coming with you!" Sayori declared firmly, yet with a big grin on her face. "I'm not going to just leave you alone when you're this sad, alright?"

"So, you're walking home with me?"

"Well, yes, I suppose. I was thinking that we could hang out or something, you know?"

"Like a-"

"A sleepover!" Sayori sang, spinning around on one leg. "No boys, no drama, no Yuri! Just you, me, and whatever you'd like to cheer yourself up with? So what do you say? I can grab us some snacks from the mini-mart on the way back to my house?"

Natsuki hesitated, absentmindedly rubbing her arm as she thought about it. The offer was tempting, to say the least, but Natsuki had never had a sleepover before. It wasn't that she didn't want to have one in the past, or even that Papa wouldn't allow one, it was just that she didn't have many friends before she joined the literature club. Now, Sayori was offering a chance to make all this go away, at least for one night, and have a little fun.

At last, she nodded. "Sure, that sounds great."

"Yay!" Sayori exclaimed. "Let me just tell the others that I'm going home, alright?"

Natsuki twiddled her fingers together. "You don't have to leave the club early just for me, OK?"

"Pfft! Nonsense!" Sayori stated dismissively. "Turning that frown upside down is far more important than a silly club meeting. Right now, you need me more than they do, right?"

"That sounds kinda selfish if I say yes."

"You do!" Sayori affirmed. "Now, I'll just be a moment, OK?"

Natsuki nodded. "OK, I'll just wait here."

Sayori entered the club room to find MC and Yuri still reading together. That simple act bothered Sayori more than she would've liked it to. She had to remind herself that neither knew how Natsuki felt, and this whole situation wasn't their fault. It wasn't anybody's fault, but merely the result of poor timing. Shaking the thoughts out of her head, she found Monika neatly writing on a sheet of paper by herself and walked over.

Monika didn't notice her presence until Sayori tapped her on the shoulder. That was enough to snap her back to reality. Turning her head back, she eyed Sayori and flashed her a friendly smile. "Heya, Sayori. What's up? Did you find Natsuki?"

"Uh, yeah. About that, Natsuki isn't feeling well. She's just going to go home, if that's alright."

Monika frowned. "Aww, poor girl. Did she throw up?"

"Well, no," Sayori admitted. Casting a glance in the direction of MC and Yuri, she was somewhat relieved to find that neither seemed to notice the current discussion. She sighed with relief. Love was blind _and _deaf, it seemed. "She's not sick, at least not physically. I'm actually going home with her; we're gonna have a sleepover tonight so that I can cheer her up. She's had a very bad day, today."

Monika glanced over at the couple across the room, then back at Sayori. "So I guess it's just me and them, today."

"Yep."

Monika shrugged. "Ah. Well, that's fine. Just, if I may ask, did she specify what's got her down? Maybe I can write her a poem to make her a little more happy tomorrow."

Sayori hesitated. "She, er, did, but it's a long story. It kinda involves the others, as well. Can you keep it a secret?"

Monika nodded. "Of course. I'm not a blabbermouth."

Sayori grinned. "Good. I'll text you tonight, kay?"

"Wait, Sayori, what-"

But before she had time to get an answer out of her, Sayori had snatched her backpack and was gone in a flash.


End file.
